Consumers on low incomes and households with young children should have access to advice on how to pay their bills rather than simply being disconnected, Energywatch will say.

Disconnection is used too often as a first resort and can hit vulnerable consumers very hard Energywatch spokesman

The group will recommend that when firms apply for a warrant to disconnect, they should have to demonstrate that they have pursued every other means of recovering the debt.

"The truth is that these warrants are granted in bulk and little attention is paid to the debtors' circumstances," an Energywatch spokesman said.

This can result in large number of disconnections being made in error, according to the watchdog.

"Nearly half the disconnections that we looked at were made in error. Disconnection is used too often as a first resort and can hit vulnerable consumers very hard," the spokesman added.

Furious

Bronwyn Deane, 28, was at home in Newcastle with her two-year old son on a cold October afternoon when a representative of Northern Electric called.

"He asked to be let into the communal area where the meters are stored. I let him in and a few minutes later I had no power, I had been cut off for non-payment of a bill," Ms Deane said.

Ms Deane was perplexed as she had paid her bill, and wasn't even a customer of Northern Electric.

"I spent the rest of day on the phone to my supplier Scottish Power and Northern Electric. I just kept being passed around and no one seemed to know what was going on. It was horrible as it was getting dark, cold and my son was upset," she said.

Eventually, at around 10 o'clock in the evening, Ms Deane's power supply was restored, but eight months on, she has yet to receive an apology for the mistake.

"I am furious no one has taken responsibility for what happened. One firm blamed another, it's wrong that they can just turn up and cut people off like this," Ms Deane said.

Your comments:

I work in for an electricity supplier and I believe Energywatch let these people off who don't pay their bills too easily and just side for the customer. The customers must take some responsibility in paying their bills and making sure they are paid. Obviously safeguards against mistakes like the one above must be noticed and apologised for. What is not mentioned is that the poorest 13% are generally not the brightest or the friendliest people to deal with either!
Jamie Morris, Newcastle, UK

I had my power cut off over a $12 over due bill by our local power company and I had three kids all under 10 at home. In America they cut you off in the dead of winter over piddling amounts and they legally aren't supposed to be able to do so. The economic bigots will always make life hard for those less fortunate, legally or not.
Judith M Jones, Spokane, Washington state

If you scrutinise the energy company charges small print, you will see that those people who are the most vulnerable are also charged the most, which means they are being asked to pay more for something they can't really afford anyway, but need as a basic necessity. They are more likely to have key meters or not have bank accounts to be able to pay by direct debit (& get a discount). Effectively, these people are paying for my direct debit discount.
Tracey, UK

Upon moving into my new house, I called British Gas to get the gas turned on. They said that was fine but the meter hadn't been inspected for a while and they needed to send someone out to see it. I was going on holiday for two weeks so made an appointment for a few days after I was due to get back. Upon my return I found that British Gas had forced entry into my house, smashed the lock on my front door and removed the meter. I called them to find out what had happened and they told me there was an outstanding charge of �1.50 from the previous owner and that they needed to inspect the meter. When I pointed out that I had taken over the billing and that I had made an appointment to have the meter inspected, they confirmed that this had been caused by human error. I asked them to come out immediately to reconnect the gas as I had no heating and no hot water but they said they couldn't come out until the next day and could only give me a time slot of 8:00 - 17:00 so I had to take the whole day off work. I wrote a complaint letter to ask for compensation and around a month later they called me back to offer 30p to cover the cost of the call that I made to report the problem. On the whole it was a horrible experience.
Shane Wailes, Northwood, Middlesex, UK

The utility companies are poorly regulated, their employees are badly trained, their business ethics are at best questionable, their legal duty of care to thier clients is totally ignored, and, as your article points out, this seriously hits the poor and the disadvantaged . Ms. Deane should have immediately taken out a small claims court summons for a large amount of compensation.
Elena Edwards, london, UK

I have to agree with Jamie Morris - the customer has to take some responsibility. If a customer is struggling to pay then if they call, usually the company can arrange to extend payment, installment plans etc. I find that some customers don't contact us at all and don't pay the bill and then call us shouting wondering why they have been disconnected. My advice would be - if you are struggling to pay a utility bill, contact them as early as possible and more often than not something can be done to help.
Clare, UK

I was in this situation, when I had 3 small children at home and an elderly relative living with me. They used the fact that the meters were in a communal area of the building and installed a key meter, which charged triple the price of normal electricity and the nearest place to charge the key was 2 miles away. The "debt" which they were trying to collect that way was assigned to me by the energy company from the previous tenant at the property, without confirming with me. I had to resort to help from Energywatch to solve the problem, but did not have sufficient energy to nail the electricity company properly for doing this to me. I believe, regulations should prevent them from turning off supply to any home with a child under 10, pensioner over 70 (or other vulnerable person) living in it.
S.B., London, UK

We had our gas supply cut off by British Gas and we didn't even have gas supplied by them! We have one of those pay as you go meters as they are easier to manage (financially) so it's impossible to ever owe anyone anything. Just because they are large companies they can do what they want when they want as there is never any come back from mistakes they do as no one cares or the regulators have no powers to demand standards that I would hope in this day and age are mandatory.
Daniel, Birmingham, UK

I agree that the vulnerable should be protected. However, it must also be remembered that utility companies are not charities. You wouldn't expect to buy food at a supermarket, eat it, and then not have to pay.
Tony Quality, Manchester, UK